THE PLAINSMEN

The Plainsmen at the Station Hotel, in Redcar about 1961 with Ed Saul on lead guitar, John Gibson on rhythm, Mike Peacock, almost hidden on drums, Stan Whalley on bass and the lead vocalist, John McCormack on the extreme right.

The band on stage at the Pier Ballroom, in Redcar, with a slight change of personnel - Dave Cook replaced Ed Saul on lead guitar, John Gibson is on rhythm, John Neesam joined the band as lead vocalist. Mike Peacock is on drums with Stan Whalley on bass. This was taken in 1963 on the night that The Plainsmen were back-up band to Shane Fenton & The Fentones. For those of you who don't remember Shane Fenton, he later went on to be known as Alvin Stardust.

The Plainsmen - with the same line-up as above - taken at the Ladle Hotel, in Middlesbrough also 1963.

The Plainsmen outside the Infants School in Grangetown in February 1962 with Stan Whalley, John Gibson, Mick Peacock and Dave Cook. At this time the band used to rehearse in St. Matthew's Church Hall which was over the road from the school.

The Plainsmen at the Rainbow Coffee Bar, Seaton Carew in 1964. They are, left to right, Eddie Saul on guitar, Terry Lynch on keyboards, George Hart on lead guitar, Dave Allison on drums and Ron Blair on bass guitar. The Rainbow Coffee Bar, along with the Blue Lagoon, were two venues used by Hartlepool businessman, Ken Tyzack, who promoted local bands and live music.

The Plainsmen

Plainsmen member Ron Blair (dressed all in white) celebrated his 60th birthday at Hartlepool Cricket Club in June, 2004 and invited some guests to join the band on stage. They included Stan Laundon on the extreme left, Ed Saul in the centre playing bass and singing, with Billy Crallan and George Hart to the right. Ron also played with Billy and Stan in The Trakkers before joining The Plainsmen.

This appeared in Hartlepool Mail's "Memory Lane" column in January, 2007. Celebrity BBC radio disc jockey, Sir Jimmy Savile (correct spelling) made an appearance at The Lantern in July 1964. There was live entertainment from Hartlepool bands The Plainsmen and The Toffees. The Labour Club, in Park Road, was used as the venue for The Lantern. Local impresarios the Shadforths used to hire the place from time to time and transformed it into the Lantern Club.

How nice it was to receive email from former Plainsmen rhythm guitarist John Gibson who now resides in Australia. He sent us these two rare photographs of Ed Saul and himself. The first one showing how friendly they were back then - and the second in the alley behind Ed's house in 1960, "before we started the band" he says. "I had my first guitar from the second hand shop in North Ormesby. "Ed already had an electric, so I swopped my acoustic for another pawn shop electric. "At first we didn't have an amp and somehow wired our guitars into my tape recorder, all 4 watts of it!"

"Then, in 1961, we bought the Hofner's at Hamilton's Music Store in Corporation Rd, Middlesbrough and I got a Selmer amp. "We really wanted Fenders but they were out of reach financially to two young lads. "I was still at Eston Grammar School so took a summer job to raise the money."

John Gibson's Hofner V3 guitar, bought from Hamilton's Music Store in Middlesbrough in 1961, and still looking as good today!

....and in the Selmer case.

I do appreciate that a football team has nothing at all to do with The Plainsmen but John Gibson also sent us this photograph of Eston Grammar School under 15's football team 1958/59. John is second from the left on the bottom row and next to him, on the extreme left, is former Crawdaddies member Ken Thwaites.